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This long - not unpleasant but LONG - weekend we had a visit from Herself's little brother. It was quiet and mostly refreshing for all of us, the more so because we two had anticipated a more strenuous weekend.

In between lazing and casual conversation, we got in someless casual talk. Ron is inclined to be enthusiastic and garrulous, and treated us to his latest take on the universe. His current inspiration - he does not so much seek gurus as he finds motivational speakers who talk his talk - has a cute little pseudomythology in which a batch of divine eternals create the universe for fun, immerse tyhemselves in it, forget their identity and need to work to realize once more just how divine they are. I may slightly mistake some of that, but it is close enough - of course it is one more take on ye are gods and the serpent's preaching - and a particularly cheesy and juvenile one.

But, as it came out in discussion, it satisfies Ron, because he really cannot accept - or does not want to believe - an authority figure in the sky, thinking up punishmentsand making arbitrary rules that people - no taxation without representation - have to obey. Did I mention his critical thinking skills are not terribly advanced? His ideas on most subjects involve the same uncritical acceptance of what a good talker has said.

Of course, he is Herself's baby brother, she has a certain standing, and we spent some time pointing out holes in the system - Herself a bit more forcefully than I, if you cannot be direct about your little brother's errors who can you correct?

She feels that he is not as attached to his ideas as he might seem, and that if we had access to him for a month she could work some of this stuff out of him. Certainly he was not particularly defending the ideas he laid before us.

But for me it was an interesting exercise, calculating how strongly I could / should critique sloppy thinking, how to present the to him unpalatable truth. He is not down on us like my brother, but in his milder way he is in agreement that the people who talk like us are the problem.

The truth, the stark naked truth, the truth without so much as a loincloth on, should surely be the investigator's sole aim - Basil Chamberlain

Herself is convinced that if we had him here a month we could get through to him - he is a prime example of "The unexamined life is good enough for a lot of people", and normally he is only ecposed to what pop culture presents. But even in a three day visit he was granting that our points made sense.

The truth, the stark naked truth, the truth without so much as a loincloth on, should surely be the investigator's sole aim - Basil Chamberlain